US does not seek war with Iran: Pentagon

The US will defend freedom of navigation in the Middle East but has no interest in starting a war with Iran, the Pentagon said after Washington blamed Tehran for attacks yesterday on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

"We have no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East. We will defend our interests, but a war with Iran is not in our strategic interest, nor in the best interest of the international community," the Pentagon said.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo yesterday accused Iran of being responsible for the incidents that damaged two tankers in the Gulf of Oman and the attacks last month on oil shipping and infrastructure in the region.

The US Central Command, which oversees US military forces in the Middle East, late yesterday released photographs purportedly showing an unexploded limpet mine on the hull of chemical tanker Kokuka Courageous and video footage of what it described as an Iranian patrol ship removing that mine later in the day.

"You know they did it because you saw the boat, I guess one of the mines did not explode and it has probably got Iran written all over it," President Donald Trump said in a televised interview today.

Beyond releasing the video and photographic evidence, the US based its claim on undisclosed intelligence reports and its belief that no other state actor or proxy group was capable of carrying out such attacks.

Tehran disputed the US accusation. "Pinning the blame on Iran for the suspicious and regrettable incident involving the oil tankers seems to be the easiest and most simplistic thing Mr. Pompeo and other US statesmen could do," Iran's foreign ministry said. "Iran is responsible for ensuring the security of the Strait of Hormuz, and we showed this by rushing to save the sailors of the incident-hit vessels in the shortest time possible."

The tankers damaged by the attacks had recently moved through the strait, which is a major shipping and trading lane in the Middle East. About 20mn b/d of crude and oil products transits the passage.

US naval vessels also rendered assistance to Kokuka Courageous and Long Range 2 tanker Front Altair, according to the Central Command. US and Iranian naval vessels appear to have operated in close vicinity of each other following the response to the incidents that took place early morning on 13 June.

Pompeo instructed the acting US ambassador at the UN, Jonathan Cohen, to brief the UN Security Council on the attacks. "The US will continue its diplomatic and economic efforts to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and Iran should meet us with diplomacy not with terror, attacks on ships, infrastructure and diplomatic facilities," Cohen said.

US officials are making the allegations against Iran to sabotage a mediation effort by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. Abe was in Tehran during the incident on a mission to help defuse tensions between the US and Iran.

"We are still investigating the situation and will not comment," Abe's office said of yesterday's incidents. One of the tankers, the Kokuka Courageous, is owned by Japanese company Kokuka Sangyo.